families demand that the presence of LFI be “prohibited”

Several families of French victims of the October 7 attacks in Israel wrote to Emmanuel Macron to ask him to ban the presence of La France Insoumise at the tribute organized on February 7.

“For us, it is unacceptable that LFI participates in the tribute” which will be returned on February 7 at the Invalides in Paris to the victims of the Hamas attacks of October 7 “and come to sully the memory of the dead”, said Tuesday, January 30, on franceinfo Olivier, a Frenchman, cousin of the Dan-Kalderon family, two members of which were murdered on October 7. A member of his family is still hostage to the Islamist movement.

On Tuesday, several families of French victims of Hamas attacks wrote to Emmanuel Macron to ask him “that any presence of La France insoumise be prohibited” during the ceremony on February 7.

“The desire to divert things”

On February 23, Mathilde Panot, the president of the La France insoumise group at the National Assembly, announced that she would be present on February 7. She requested that it be returned “a tribute to all the French victims of this war in the Middle East”.

“The presence of LFI, and in particular of Mathilde Panot who announced that she was going to go there, on their part we can clearly see that it is, as often, the desire to divert things, to make it a political act“, says Olivier. He sees “indecency, lack of respect, negationism”.

Olivier recalls that La France Insoumise has “refused to recognize the attacks of October 7 as terrorist”. “My 80-year-old cousin was burned and her throat slit, her 12-year-old granddaughter, Noya, an autistic child, was slaughtered and her throat cut. But for LFI this is not terrorism,” the Frenchman is indignant. “We do not want to let LFI dishonor the victims of October 7.”

“Soothe our pain and repair the living”

Olivier admits that he “don’t know who is invited or not invited” to the tribute to the victims planned at Les Invalides. He is waiting for Emmanuel Macron to “don’t invite” the rebels “or say that their presence is not desirable.”

The February 7 ceremony represents “a reminder of what happened” on October 7, adds Olivier. Families want “the Republic recognizes, remembers, pays homage, does not forget” the victims. It is “bring the nation together.” “This idea of ​​homage is also about soothing our pain and repairing the living.”